What it is to Win
by link no miko
Summary: Shikamaru hates training. Temari disagrees. And her training isn't exactly the type he's used to. [ShikmaruTemari oneshot]


**What it is to Win**

-

A one-shot I had an urge to write. Pointless almost!drabble. Shikamaru/Temari because they rock and are so great for each other. Some adultish things, but nothing graphic. Rawr.

-

Training was never his favorite thing. In fact, he hates it. Maybe more than responsibility, although that would be cutting a very fine line ideed.

And so, when she tells him they're going to train, he refuses. And in what his fellow shinobi think of as a valiant yet completely foolish maneuver, he crosses his arms over his chest and closes his eyes and leans back against the wall to sleep.

And of course she doesn't take lightly to this.

Shikamaru's screams can be heard across the village.

-

She deposits him unceremoniously on the ground fifteen minutes and one deep-forest clearing later. He glares up at her with as much of his broken pride as he can muster, but she just smirks and crouches beside him, grabbing his face in her hands.

"Now we play."

Her idea of play is not anywhere near what his idea of play is. His idea is sitting on his butt or lying on his back, watching the clouds go by and generally not caring about anything. His idea is peaceful, oblivious bliss.

Her idea, obviously, is not.

Shikamaru finds himself on his back for the fifth time in a row, rather harshly thrown down there by a large fan. Temari stands above him, hands on her hips and her lips pressed firmly together in what he's become to realize is a very cute pissed-off expression.

He should know, he sees it often enough.

"You aren't even trying."

"No. No, I am not."

"Why the hell not?"

"…Takes too much effort."

She grinds her teeth and stalks off, but not before he catches a glimpse of her thigh, creamy and smooth despite how hard and harsh she is. And then he realizes what he's thinking of and very quickly casts his eyes up to the sky to watch the un-troublesome clouds pass by.

Unfortunately she notices.

He's forced to his feet rather forcefully, which is quite troublesome because now his head is reeling from moving too fast, and she's also watching him with a predatory look he's only seen a few times, and those few times were enough to make him know he never wanted to see it again.

"If you won't play nice, I'll make you play."

This is definitely not a good turn of events.

She takes his hand—_Her hands are rough_—twining her fingers through his, and then her eyes capture his and he realizes troublesome isn't a strong enough word for her.

But he's too lazy to think of another one.

"We're going to test your skills with a quiz. Answer correctly and you'll get a good reward." _Oh joy._ "Are you ready?"

"Not really, but you don't care about that, do you?"

"Of course not. Now, are you ready?"

He sighs. That's the only answer she needs. Moving their combined hands, she places his firmly against her breasts, smirking at his raised eyebrow.

"What would happen if you were to land a blow against me here?"

"I'd grope you, I guess."

"No, idiot!" Her hand tightens around his, nails digging in a little too sharply for his liking. "Obviously nothing would happen, because you'd never manage to touch me, let alone grope me. And that's why you're a crappy ninja. You'll never beat me."

"That's nice. Can I stop groping you…now…?"

His eyes widen in surprise when he feels her hands on a part of his body they definitely shouldn't be touching. Temari smirks at him and squeezes a little harder, and he knows she's enjoying this.

"No, but I can start groping you."

_Troublesome woman…_

And suddenly he finds himself sitting on the ground where Temari forced him down, with her straddling his hips, her hand still between his legs and his still on her chest. And he's really wishing he could be cloud watching right now, but she feels really nice against him too and he doesn't quite know how to handle that and it scares him.

She removes her hand and he sighs, although he's not sure if that's because he's happy she relented or because he enjoyed it, and then her hands are tracing over his face, one cupping his cheek as the other runs through his hair and down along his neck.

"I don't understand you at all," she mutters, her breath hot against his face. "How can you defeat me every time…?"

Shikamaru shrugs because he has no answer to that and wouldn't answer even if he did. He may not understand girls, but he isn't completely stupid. And he didn't become a Chuunin before anyone else in his class for nothing, either.

But Temari doesn't care about any of that. Her hands move over his face some more, then down to his chest and suddenly she's leaning into him, her breath warm and her lips soft as they meet his and there's nothing he can do, and even if there was he doesn't know if he wants to.

She holds the kiss for a moment and then presses harder against him, forcing him back till he's lying down and she's above him. He can just barely see the clouds beyond her, the sun shining on her hair and making it shimmer like gold.

And suddenly his hands are in her hair, and he's pressing back against her lips despite everything his mind is telling his body to do. And he can feel her smile against his mouth and suddenly she's moving, her weight lifting off of him, and he's left lying on his back and looking up at her again.

"I think that's enough for today. Did you learn anything?"

His body hurts from where she pounded on him, and a different part of his body hurts for an entirely different reason, but he ignores all this the same as he's ignored everything else in his life that took effort. Instead he just makes a non-committal noise in the back of his throat, and she rolls her eyes and leans down to help him up. Like earlier with her thigh, this time he can see the top swell of her breast and he instantly finds focus in the clouds.

She notices but doesn't say anything. There'll be time for that later.

-

His friends find him in his usual spot the next day, lying on his back and looking up at the sky. Chouji doesn't say anything, because he's Chouji and he knows Shikamaru better than anyone possibly could. But everyone else wants to know what happened, could he tell them and it had better have been good.

Shikamaru just shrugs, because words are too troublesome, and he doesn't know of any that could possibly describe what it is they want to know. Eventually they tire of his silence and leave, but Chouji stays behind to sit beside him like he always does.

They sit in silence for a while, Shikamaru looking at the sky and Chouji chewing on some chips. But eventually the words come, and although Shikamaru doesn't stop looking at the sky, Chouji can tell he's ready to say something.

"It's scary when you find her, isn't it?" The chubby boy asks, setting his chips down for a second. "Like nothing's the same."

Shikamaru nods and closes his eyes. "Yeah. Everything changes."

Chouji nods and picks up the bag of chips, settling himself in for a day of looking at the clouds, sitting beside his best friend who just realized that sometimes losing can be the hardest win you've ever made.


End file.
